Book Review: Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil, M.D.

Dr. Andrew Weil presents information on the newest theory inhealth, integrative health care, in Spontaneous Happiness, published this past September 2011. I became interested in reading this book when Dr. Weil’s article on his belief that people suffer from “nature deprivation”,taken from Spontaneous Happiness (Newsweek, October 30, 2011), prompted our family to take a hike in the trails near our home. We found that we loved hiking! (See our blog post, “Trail Hiking—FamilyActivity”, November 2011). Dr. Weil’s recent book not only contains useful information for creating a healthylifestyle to a wide audience, but also presents it in an accessible three-part format. Highlights of the book include an eight-week program for personal integrative health and the Anti-InflammatoryDiet. The book’s contents are also featured online at www.SpontaneousHappiness.com.

Happiness, according to Weil in Part I of the book, is not “ceaseless bliss” but more like the Swedish term, lagom, which translated loosely “means something like ‘just right’ or ‘exactly enough’-- basically a balance point of “resilience, contentment, comfort, and serenity…your emotional safe harbor which you canleave but to which you should be able to return easily and naturally”. I don’t mind telling you that, as a “keeperof the family”, this also struck me as part of a definition of home. Part I continues on with Weil’s theory thatan epidemic of depression abounds, that a new integrative approach is needed which addresses a person’s “physical, psychological, and spiritual needs” (which reminds me as more of an extension of the “mind-body” connection, so often quoted, to a “mind-body-soul” connection…and the “health triangle” approach of personal-physical-social realms), and that integrative health can benefit from the practices of botheastern and western health theories. As a reader looking to this book for further information on helping families, Part I of the book seems less intriguing than Parts II and III, but I do see theimportance in Weil’s definition of happiness, and the background of health as well as the introduction of integrative health.

Part II and Part III include concrete suggestions for creating “happiness”…once again defined as “a balance point of resilience, contentment, comfort, and serenity”. Part II focuses on three areas: Body, Mind, and Secular Spirituality. For the body, Weil suggests adopting an anti-inflammatory diet (outlined in the appendix), exercising more, getting adequate sleep in darkness and quiet at night, as well as adequate light exposure during the day. For the mind, Weil focuses on “ruminating negative thought patterns” that he states are the “root of unhappiness”. He makes several suggestions for a healthy mind including interventions of the positive psychology movement, mindfulness training, meditation, reducing attachment to those items which are oftenassociated with addictions in people, and practicing visualization and daily “breath work”. Weil is quick to defineand explain the difference and the overlaps between spirituality and religion in the chapter on secular spirituality and its importance. Its here that Weil suggests that people need to be more aware of their connection, not only to the natural world, but also to animals, art, beauty, and communities of people in order to bring morefulfillment into their lives.

Part III, the final section of the book, consists of an eight-week step-by-step program to improve an individual’s happiness and two appendicies which include a general outline of the Anti-Inflammatory Diet and a list offurther books to read as well as several online resources for readers on many of the Weil’s suggestions in the book. As well, he gives two of his own web sites, www.drweil.com and www.SpontaneousHappiness.com ,where readers can access even more information on integrative health.

It is important to note that throughout the book, Dr. Weil is careful to suggest and explain that for individuals with depressive disorders, his suggestions should be used in conjunction with their current therapies.

As a person first attracted to this book by Dr. Andrew Weil’s researched belief that we, as a people (especially kids) suffer from “nature deprivation” and his concrete suggestions on connecting more withnature in his Newsweek article, I read this book as a mom looking for more suggestions for my family. Though I didn’t need the extensive background on health theories or the treatment of depression at this reading, I did find several activities that I can do, teach, and adapt for my own family to improve their overallhealth in general. However, his suggestion to quit coffee and caffeine drinks (for overly dependent people)“cold turkey”, though well-intentioned, won’t “fly” in my family! I definitely don’t want to be any where neara person who is trying to cut a dependence on caffeine in that manner; I don’t think it will increase the family’s happiness quotient one bit (initially anyhow!). Otherwise, I found the concrete suggestions and resources to be a highly positive factor of the book, and very easily to adapt and implement.